Virtually Brothers
by Bakufun1
Summary: "I was planning on using you as a vessel for Noah..." In another universe, Gozaburo went through with his plan to have the young Seto become the body of Noah Kaiba. But things don't go as planned, and they all have to deal with the consequences of what happens when you try to sacrifice one life for the continued survival of another.
1. A Home of Many Questions

The ride from the orphanage to Seto and Mokuba's new home was a long one. At least, to him. It was spent fretting over his younger brother and wondering how in the world he managed to get them adopted- by Gozaburo Kaiba, no less! Sure, Seto had practically forced him into it, but the man had been looking for a child to adopt anyways. Technically this arrangement was in the best interest for both parties.

"Big brother, look! That house is huge!" Mokuba said and pointed excitedly out the window. Seto looked out to find that they were pulling into the driveway of the European style mansion his younger brother was showing him. Gozaburo really must be rich! He could see a yard larger than the entire property of the orphanage, a number of fountains, and even some hedges. It really was a huge house, and it was almost to the point of being overwhelming, but Seto forced himself to keep his cool.

"Yes it is, Mokie. This is where we get to live now, remember?" Seto gently reminded his brother, "C'mon and put your backpack back on, we're going to get out soon."

He quickly helped Mokuba put his bag on before slipping on his own right as the car stopped. The door was opened for them and the brothers stepped out, while the younger of the two was holding on tightly to the elder brother's hand. Gozaburo was already waiting for them, and he stood with his hands folded behind his back, and to Seto he looked quite intimidating. His stare was piercing, almost challenging. They had only met properly once before: when Seto made the bet with him. Good to know that his now adopted father was always like this.

" _It's like he's staring into my soul,"_ Seto thought, repressing the shiver that crawled down his spine. Mokuba held on tighter to his arm in a vice-like grip. Gozaburo gave a quick order to follow him inside, and the children did so with only a moment's hesitation. Seto wondered if Gozaburo was just going to humour him for a few months, then pawn them off to some other orphanage or foster care. He didn't seem like he was happy about having them, and besides, that would technically fulfill his promise of adopting them. By then, he would have adopted them for a time, after all.

Seto was quickly distracted from these thoughts when they entered the mansion, and it was even more extravagant than he thought it would be! Not that he had the highest expectations, since living in an orphanage killed any expectations of high quality things that he couldn't even imagine obtaining in his dreams. The house was spacious, with a staircase leading to the upper floors of the mansion.

There were high quality paintings of what Seto could assume were commissioned portraits of Gozaburo on the walls. However something intrigued him about one particular portrait hanging in the hallway. It was of a mint haired boy, not much older than Seto himself, and he wondered if Gozaburo might have had a was just something about the way that the picture was hung that made the young boy interesting. A white cloth hung over the picture, in a manner that seemed like there was something about the picture that one might want to forget… but nevertheless Seto's thoughts were disrupted as he was ushered into the other parts of the house. Where there were beautiful chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, and decor of fine quality that was seen in the rest of the house like in the rooms before. Seto just hoped that he nor Mokuba ended up breaking anything.

Mokuba made his amazement obvious with a cry as they walked, "It's so pretty! Seto look!" to which Seto agreed that yes, it was pretty, then Gozaburo stopped and turned to face them. After a second of inspecting the two, he finally spoke.

"A maid will show you around and take you to your rooms. You will get yourself settled and come down to the dining room when you are ready. If there are any problems with your rooms, wait until after lunch to bring them up," He instructed. His voice held a high authority, stating this as if there was no other possible thing they might do. Seto disliked it, and could tell it scared Mokuba. He set his face and gave a curt nod, then wrapped the arm Mokuba was clinging to around his brother.

Satisfied, Gozaburo turned and left, leaving the boys to be approached by a nearby maid who silently beckoned them to follow. Seto was almost glad that his adopted father- no, his… stepfather? Yeah, his stepfather didn't bother giving them the tour. It would have been awkward and he would have to deal with that feeling of dread he got when the man stared at him. Plus, Gozaburo scared Mokuba half to death!

They were shown where the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms, and any other rooms were. Seto made mental notes of all of them so he could help Mokuba around later. The mansion was large and confusing, not the type of place he would be able to navigate yet.

The final place shown was their own bedrooms, which Seto was happy to note were across from each other. He would have hated it if Gozaburo tried to keep their rooms apart! Not to mention that he knew that Mokuba would end up having nightmares and would seek out comfort from his brother, so it wouldn't be good if their rooms were separate. After all, Mokuba could easily get lost. He also noted that they were never shown where his stepfather's room was during the tour.

The maid spoke up, "I can help Mokuba set up in his room, Master Seto-"

"-No, I can help him. I'll set up mine afterwards, you can leave." Seto didn't trust anyone here yet. The maid nodded before walking away. Not a moment later Mokuba decided he would barge into his new room and throw himself on the bed, then yelled at Seto to come sit on the bed.

"It's so soft! I love my bed, it's perfect!" Mokuba cried out with a joyus grin painted on his face. Seto laughed and sat on the bed beside Mokuba.

"Wow, it really is! Let's get your stuff put away and then we can see if mine is as good as yours!"

"Fine, but mine is better!" Mokuba retorted as he slipped off his bag and dumped the contents on the bed. While he sorted through the things for his favourite toys, Seto took a look around the room to decide where they should put everything. There was a wardrobe and dresser, so they could put the clothing in the dresser and put the really nice things in the wardrobe. The toys would probably go on the dresser until he actually needed to use the chest at the end of the bed for them. Mokuba's few books would go on the bookcase, which Seto noticed had no books on it yet.

Seto quickly got to work while Mokuba was distracted with his action figures. The clothing was folded and put in a lower drawer in the dresser (he decided that he probably would have to ask Gozaburo to get them more clothing). He also set down a few currently unused toys neatly on top of the dresser, and put the books on the shelf well within Mokuba's reach. He decided that the wall color was a bit bland (really, beige was so generic) but would hold off on that until he knew for a fact they were staying for good.

That task finished, he turned to Mokuba and got his attention.

"Hey Mokie, all your stuff is put away. Wanna go test out my bed now?"

Mokuba let out an excited cheer and rushed out of the room, toys forgotten and scattered on the floor, probably being now yet another task for some poor maid to attend to. Seto quickly placed them on the dresser out of courtesy and followed him across the hall to his own room.

He noticed that Mokuba was already bouncing on his bed, and announcing that Seto's bed wasn't as good as his own when he walked in. Seto wondered if anyone else could hear them, and hoped that Mokuba wasn't causing too much of a ruckus. After all, Gozaburo seemed like the type not to really accept and approve of such behaviors from either of them, and Seto really didn't want the man to change his mind about adopting them. Even if there had been a bet, he was sure that he could always go back on his word somehow. Then again, maybe he would really be true to his word.

However, Seto smiled, nodded, and went to go put away his own things. He didn't even know where Gozaburo was, and assumed that the mansion was large enough that Mokuba couldn't be heard. He started with the bookshelf, which he found already contained a number of books. Academic books- no, these were _University_ books. This was a surprise, but he chalked it up to Gozaburo assuming he was naturally that intelligent. Even though he was smart, he hadn't done any college level things. Then again, when would he have ever had the option at the orphanage to? Seto took off his bag and removed the book he had in it, placed it on the shelf, and felt like it was out of place with all those hefty textbooks. It was just a book about some people going on an adventure. Fantasy, not factual.

"Big brother, your books are boring! You can read mine," Mokuba suddenly offered, looking over from the bed. Clearly he saw that they were textbooks and deemed them boring, which was understandable.

"Thanks, Mokuba, but I think I'll let you read yours. What if I'm reading one of them and you want to read it?"

"Then you can read it to me!" Mokuba proposed, a childish grin appearing on his face once more. Seto noted that he seemed to have been having more of a blast at his new home than he was, and maybe it was because he wasn't noticing things that just felt plain _off_ around the house. After all, there were those portraits, then Seto's room having things that weren't exactly his.

But Seto couldn't help but laugh lightly at his brother's enthusiasm. Of _course_ Mokuba would offer! But he did have a point, none of these were actually fun books to read… and neither were they his. Oh well, he would just have to try and get himself more later. But maybe he could at least learn something from these.

Next he had to put away his clothing. He didn't have any toys to bring, so he didn't need to worry about that.

" _I'll put my jacket in the wardrobe and just keep everything else in the dresser…"_ He thought, then opened what should have been an empty wardrobe.

Except it wasn't.

It already had jackets and what looked to be a few uniforms hanging up in it, all of which he would associate with a "prissy rich kid". The type of clothing Seto found stuffy and stupid. Why did he already have clothing, not anything that he would wear, but not Mokuba? Wouldn't it be smarter to get clothing for both of them, or maybe to wait and get them both clothing at the same time?

...Why was his room already set up for him?

Confused, Seto decided to check the dresser to find that it also had clothing. And a quick look in the chest revealed a number of army based toys (which he quickly closed, he didn't want Mokuba to raid it quite yet.)

" _It's like I'm using some other kid's room… No, the room of that boy in the painting. Is this his room? What happened to him that I'm using his room? Is this why Gozaburo adopted me, to be a replacement for his son?"_

He didn't know how to feel about this. So instead of putting away his clothing, he took off his jacket, put it over his bag, and hid it under the bed.

"Why are you hiding it?" Mokuba questioned, startling Seto who had spaced out enough to forget that Mokuba was still there on his bed.

"I already have clothing, apparently. I'm just putting it there for now. Oh, and don't worry, I bet he's just waiting for you so you can pick out your own," Seto quickly lied. It was suspicious that he would have clothing but not Mokuba, and he knew his brother would ask about it. Mokuba seemed to accept the answer, so Seto kept talking, "Since we finished, we should go down to the dining room. I'm sure it's about lunch time now!"

"Okay, Seto! Let's get lunch!" Mokuba grabbed Seto's hand, and Seto led them to the dining hall. It was annoyingly far, but he could remember how to get there. Go downstairs, turn down that hallway- and there it was! They had passed by it earlier, but now Seto and Mokuba could really take in how huge the table was. It seemed like it could seat every person working in the mansion with room to spare!

Gozaburo was already seated at the end of the table. A lit cigar was in his mouth and even though he was across the room Seto could smell it. He decided to tug Mokuba to the other end of the table, far away from the choking stench. Gozaburo held his gaze on Seto as he sat down.

Great, he felt that feeling of dread again.

The man called over one of the servants and ordered him to bring out their lunch, a request that was fulfilled within the minute.

It turned out that lunch was oden, Seto's least favourite food. _Great first impression, Mr. Kaiba._ He grimaced as it was placed in front of him. Mokuba however, happily dug in the moment he could. Seto repressed the disgust at the thought of eating it and picked at some of the better parts. His taste buds protested at every bite, but he was hungry and skipped breakfast. He could tell that whoever cooked this was highly skilled, but Seto still hated the taste. He wasn't even going to _bother_ with the egg.

The meal was eaten slowly, and by time he ate almost half, Mokuba and Gozaburo had already finished. Seto decided it wasn't worth it to keep trying to choke down the food and pushed his plate away from him.

Gozaburo raised a brow in a questioning manner, "Don't like it, boy?"

Seto suddenly felt very small under his gaze, "Not really, no. But I can still tell that it was well made."

The man's expression was unreadable, but Seto thought he saw something that was almost disappointment. But that was just ridiculous for the CEO of KaibaCorp to be disappointed over something like a kid disliking a food. He was probably just projecting his own disappointment.

Unless of course, it was connected to that mint-haired boy. But he wouldn't dare ask about him, not yet. Not obviously.

"Anyways," Seto continued, "I noticed that you haven't gotten around to getting new clothing for Mokuba yet, and that my room has a lot of university textbooks. Can you explain that for me?"

"Your brother will receive more clothing and such in three days. As for the textbooks, I have high expectations of your intellect. They are there for you to study," Gozaburo bluntly said.

What, so his step father expected him to be a child genius just because he could win at chess? Yeah, of course he was smart, but he was in _grade school_. He knew enough advanced things here and there to be seen as highly intelligent, but he didn't have the background knowledge for half those books. And more importantly, why did Mokuba have to wait so long? Seto frowned in thought.

"I need at least some form of high school education before I can learn from those textbooks. But nevermind that, I'm still thinking about Mokuba's lack of clothing. Can't you get him clothing faster? You're rich, you should be able to at least get someone to go get stuff for him no problem-" Seto stopped short at the sudden glare he was receiving.

"You will watch your mouth, Seto! Be grateful I even adopted you. He will get his clothing in three days time and you will not disrespect me!"

" _Oh. So that's how it's going to go here. I have to study college junk and he's going to ignore what Mokuba needs."_ Seto didn't like that thought; he hoped that they would have been at least a _little_ bit spoiled by the rich CEO. At the least, he hoped Mokuba would be, people looking to adopt kids always loved him. Guess Gozaburo was the exception to this, unfortunately.

"Okay, fine, sorry. I won't do that again." More like he wouldn't go asking for anything unless it was absolutely needed. He learned that lesson at the orphanage, and learned that it still applied here. Adults were always picky about whether they would care enough to supply more than the basics.

Suddenly, Mokuba tugged on his arm and whispered, "Can we go play, big brother? Please?" His younger brother looked up at him with wide pleading eyes.

"In a moment, hold on," Seto said, then turned back to Gozaburo, "is there anything else you want to tell us before we go back to our rooms?"

"Yes. First, my room will not be entered by either of you. Second, you will hold respect for me and do as I say. Third, any problem will be brought up to one of the servants. If it requires my attention they will bring it up to me. Fourth, you will be expected to wear the clothing provided," Gozaburo paused, and seemed like he was considering something, "Fifth, you may make a list of which foods you like and dislike for later. You have permission to leave now."

This seemed… Weird. The rules were pretty basic, and Gozaburo wanted Seto to make a list of what foods they liked? Okay then. Maybe he was just getting them to do that so the cook could prepare food that wouldn't be wasted. Whatever, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Seto and Mokuba rose from the table and he led his younger brother back towards their rooms.

"He's scary…" Mokuba said once they were a good distance from the dining room.

Seto nodded, "Yeah, I guess he is. But I'm sure he'll warm up to us."


	2. The Boy In The Painting

Seto shut the textbook with a sigh and leaned back in his chair. He had been trying to study it for the past few nights, and now he was actually understanding the material. But it was draining to read through this much math, and it was late. Mokuba had been put to bed hours ago: it was bound to be at least midnight by now. Oh well, one late night couldn't hurt. The other nights he had gotten a full night's rest, though tonight wasn't the best night to stay up considering Gozaburo was taking him and Mokuba out of the mansion the next morning.

He placed the textbook back on the shelf and his notebook off to the side. His thoughts wandered to his questions from three days before; why did he have things that seemed like they belonged to that boy? He had walked by the portrait several times by now, and noticed the clothing the boy wore was identical to what Seto was given. Then, when he was looking around with Mokuba he found a few others, where Mokuba had happily pointed out that the boy and Seto were near identical.

A close inspection had proven that true, the only difference being that the boy had dyed his hair a mint green. He couldn't compare for height, but the boy seemed to be eleven as well. They shared the same facial structure, and even eye color!

As far as Seto could tell, all the evidence pointed towards him being a replacement for that boy. Maybe he had died and this was how Gozaburo was trying to cope? That seemed like the only explanation for it.

' _Gozaburo picked a physically identical child to replace his own_ — _me.'_

Now that Seto was thinking about it, he wanted to go have a look at one of the portraits of the boy again. Only for a moment, then he would go to bed.

He changed into his pyjamas and silently slipped out of his room. The dark hallways made him uneasy, but he could deal with it just fine. Either way, the only actual scary thing he could stumble upon was his stepfather. Before he went searching for the portrait, he checked that Mokuba was still asleep. A quick look in showed that Mokuba had just about surrounded himself with pillows and was fast asleep. Seto smiled; his younger brother was fine, probably dreaming about running around in the garden outside or playing with his toys.

Satisfied that Mokuba was alright, Seto shut the door and made his way down the hall to where the portrait hung up on the wall. He had to go downstairs and through the entrance hall to find it. It was dead silent, the only sound was that of his quiet footsteps. It was eerie, to say the least. In fact, it was sombering, as if whatever life that was held in the mansion had been drained, leaving it waiting for its return.

' _Clearly the missing life is that boy, if my theory is correct,'_ Seto mused.

He turned down to the hallway where the portrait of the mint-haired boy hung, and stopped.

Gozaburo stood in front of the portrait, illuminated by the moonlight shining through the window behind him. A thoughtful look was on his face, as if he was internally debating something important. Seto had no idea what he could be thinking about, but he hoped it wasn't about him or Mokuba. Maybe it was about that boy.

Gozaburo turned his head and narrowed his eyes at Seto, who responded by staring back with equal intensity.

"What are you doing out of bed?"

"I just wanted to walk around a bit before going to sleep, I lost track of time while studying." Seto felt like he was making excuses for himself, and the look from Gozaburo implied he had the same thoughts.

"Go to bed. We have things to do in the morning."

Seto ignored the command. "Who's that boy in the painting?"

"Go. To. _Bed_." Gozaburo shot a glare at Seto, and he felt the chill that his stepfather always gave him.

"I'm just curious-"

" _Seto_ -"

"Okay, sorry! I'll go to bed," Seto turned around and hurried away from the painting and his stepfather.

Even as his back was turned, he could feel the glare Gozaburo was giving him burning holes into his back. The dread that crawled down his spine didn't leave, not for the entire walk back up to his room. It was just as silent as ever, but the meeting made it more unnerving.

There was a lot of things going on that Seto couldn't understand, but he felt that everything was about to come to light. Maybe- maybe it would be better for it to stay hidden. Not that Seto would settle for that, of course. Perhaps he was just overthinking things, was too paranoid about that boy and Gozaburo, but he wasn't going to stop questioning until he found out. Learning information that would be useful was one of his skills, after all.

Not even when Seto was in the safety of his room did the dread leave, it lingered and clung to his chest and spine. He hoped it was just the silence and darkness getting to him. Although he did have no idea what he was even doing in the morning, all he knew was that Gozaburo was taking them to one of the KaibaCorp buildings. Maybe they were just getting a tour and he was getting worked up about nothing, just letting his paranoia get to him again.

He decided to put his worries aside and crawl in to bed, though sleep didn't come easy. His mind was racing with thoughts of who that boy was and what was happening the next day.

' _Was I only adopted to be a replacement? Does he just consider Mokuba an extra that I brought along? But if I'm supposed to be filling in the hole left by that boy, why is he so cold to me?'_ The thoughts danced around in his mind for close to half an hour, in a failing attempt to understand something that should have been so simple.

But then, Seto's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of his door creaking open. He opened his eyes to see Mokuba walking over to his bed, then climbing up it to lay down beside him.

"Seto, I had a bad dream," Mokuba stared at him with wide, teary eyes. Seto wrapped his arms around his little brother and pulled the blanket over them both.

"Hey, it's okay, the bad dream is over now. You can sleep here tonight and I'll keep any other bad dreams away for you."

Mokuba nestled his face into Seto's chest and mumbled a "Thank you, big brother…" before falling silent. Seto waited until he knew for sure that his brother was asleep, before allowing himself to fall asleep as well.

This time, with his brother in his arms, he fell asleep easy.

In the morning, Seto and Mokuba were awoken by the sound of a maid knocking on his bedroom door. He sat up as she walked in, groggy from how little sleep he got.

"Master Seto, Master Kaiba has requested for you and Mokuba to be ready and at the table for breakfast in ten minutes," she reported, before bowing and heading out.

"Way to give me a heads up… Mokuba, wake up, we need to get dressed and have breakfast," Seto nudged his brother awake, who responded with a groan that sounded closer to an exaggerated no. He rolled his eyes and nudged him again, this time getting Mokuba to sit up and blink sleepily at him.

"Big brother, I'm tired though…" Even as he complained, Mokuba slid out of the bed after Seto.

"I am too, but we have to get up. You can sleep more on our way to the KaibaCorp building." Whichever one it was, there had to be at least two in the city with different purposes.

Seto took the hand of his grumpy brother and walked him across the hall to Mokuba's room. He already had an idea of what they each should wear, so he decided to make this as quick as possible. He pulled a nice shirt and sweater out of the wardrobe, some jeans from the dresser, and handed them to Mokuba.

"Try to get changed quickly, I'm just going to go get dressed in my room, okay Mokie?" Seto said. Mokuba nodded, and he left for his own room. Thank goodness his little brother wasn't putting up a fuss today, he didn't want Gozaburo angry at them for being late to breakfast.

' _Ugh, Mokuba needs new clothing soon. At least he's supposed to be getting some later today.'_

Seto simply grabbed one of the white uniform style outfits from the wardrobe for himself. He still wouldn't wear any of that ridiculous frilly rich boy clothing, the uniform was good enough for him. His pyjamas from the night were dropped into a laundry hamper beside the door and the uniform pulled on. The color meant he would have to be careful to not stain it, but Seto was good at keeping his clothing clean. It was Mokuba who was more likely to dirty his clothing, not that he meant to.

Speaking of Mokuba, Seto found him in the hallway between their doors. He didn't seem to have accidentally put anything on backwards in his tired daze, so they were able to go straight down to the dining room. The younger followed the elder brother down the hall, slightly more alert as he had a few minutes to wake up. The halls were much brighter now that the lights were on and the morning sun was shining through the windows, though the sombering silence from the night was still there. In fact, it was even more prominent than before.

It really wasn't helping his worries for the day.

Throughout his morning, his worries stuck with him. Seto ate his food with Mokuba, a simple meal of pancakes and orange juice, Gozaburo strangely absent. The maid informed him when asked that he had eaten earlier that morning, and was waiting for them outside. Well, no wonder they had to be quick, Gozaburo must have wanted to leave as soon as possible.

The maid took them outside to the waiting car, where their stepfather was seated in the passenger seat. It was early enough that the sun still hung low in the sky and the air held a chill from the night before. The chauffeur opened the back door for the boys, shut it after they climbed in, and walked around the car to the driver's seat. Seto helped Mokuba buckle up before buckling himself in, and not a moment later they were on their way.

Mokuba seemed to take his brother's earlier suggestion and took a nap the first chance he got. Seto himself stared out his window at the buildings and cars that whizzed by, all while making a conscious effort to ignore the dread that filled the vehicle. He still didn't know if the others felt it or if it was just him, but the dread was getting on his nerves. Despite this, he knew there must be a reason. A reason he hadn't figured out, couldn't figure out, would never know until it stared him in the eye with a deadly grin upon its face.

The ride was uneventful, the most exciting thing was some guy who rode his bike into a pole that Seto saw while they were at a red light. But soon enough, they pulled into the parking lot of a large and grey colored building. In reality it was two buildings across the street of each other, with an overpass connecting them. They were at the edge of the city; Seto could see from the window that beyond here there was just hills and fields.

Seto woke up his brother for the second time that day, and the chauffeur opened the car door for them. They climbed out, Mokuba rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Seto blinking at the bright sunlight. Gozaburo stepped out as well, and walked straight to the entrance. Seto tugged his brother along with him and jogged to catch up. He spared a glance up at the sign that stated the building: KaibaCorp Technological Development. The moment they were inside, several people rushed over to hand his stepfather some papers.

"All systems are functioning perfectly," a blonde woman in a lab coat reported to Gozaburo.

"Security checks for all employees involved have been completed and approved employees are on standby," a man in a suit added.

Gozaburo nodded, skimming over the papers he was handed. "Good. Now get back to your positions; we don't have all day." The employees scurried off with a 'Yes sir!', and he turned his head to stare down at Seto, "You will be testing out a virtual reality system. All you have to do is walk around the map and make note of how realistic it is."

Seto raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I thought your company made weapons? And why me, couldn't you have gotten, I don't know, an actual game tester?"

"Kaiba Corporation manufactures weapon based technology, this is a system in development to be used for field training. I decided that you need to be familiar with the products my company produces," Gozaburo responded.

Well, that made enough sense. "Okay, sure. Can Mokuba watch?"

"No. He will wait for you in another room. I'm sure he would find watching you walk around boring."

Seto was about to protest, but Mokuba cut in. "I wanna watch my big brother! I'm not gonna be bored!"

Gozaburo shifted his gaze from Seto to the child, "You will be waiting for him in another room. There are games supplied for you."

Mokuba looked as if he was about to cry. "But I wanna watch! I don't want to go be somewhere else while Seto goes have fun!"

Seto crouched down to eye level with his brother and gave a wide smile. "Hey, maybe we'll be able to try together later! I bet they just don't have it working for two people yet, otherwise we would be able to do it with each other. How about I tell you all about it when I finish, and then we can play a bunch of games when we get home?"

Mokuba nodded with a sad expression, "Okay… but you have to tell me _everything_."

"I promise I will." The crisis that Mokuba would throw a fit averted, Seto stood back up.

A woman with long dark hair strode over and smiled at Mokuba, "Hey there, I'm going to be playing games with you while your brother is busy. Come on, we have everything set up for you." She held out a hand for Mokuba to grab, and the boy glanced over at Seto.

"It's okay Mokuba, I'll be right here when I finish," he assured his younger brother.

His worries eased slightly, Mokuba took the hand of the woman and allowed her to walk him towards the hall to their left, taking a look back several times as they left.

Gozaburo started walking towards the hallway to their right, and Seto hastily followed. He glanced around the hall, making note of the number of surveillance cameras and how every door seemed to require some form of a key card. Even the elevator they entered to go down to a lower floor required one.

Seto was taken down to the lowest underground floor, B6. He felt as if he was about to walk into a lion's den, he was so filled with dread. The silence encompassed everything, a somber regret seemed to hang over the head of every employee he passed. A few heading towards the elevator seemed blissfully unaware of whatever doom was filling the building, but all the others were carrying an invisible weight.

Seto realized the employees that were feeling the dread he felt were actively avoiding his gaze, and those who didn't spared him a glance of what appeared to be pity. Yet Gozaburo, who no doubt must have known what was happening, looked as if he was filled with a higher purpose. There was a hint of anxiety on his face, but nothing else was clear.

Seto realized that he was about to stare into the jaws of what could be his own downfall, and he was absolutely terrified. But it was too late, he already agreed to do this "virtual reality test" and lacked a key card that would allow him to escape.

They finally reached a huge room that required Gozaburo to not only use his key card, but a fingerprint and retina scan to open the door. The first thing Seto noticed was the large spherical machine in the back of the room, happily humming away. It had a screen, currently turned off, despite the machine being on. Clearly this was the machine going to run the VR program. The second thing he noticed was the pod set up nearby it, large enough to fit a full grown man. Lastly, he noticed the multiple technicians rushing around and checking everything, while several more worked away at computers that looked like they were hooked up to the spherical one.

' _This is the lion's den,'_ Seto thought, ' _This is where something horrible is going to happen.'_

Seto hoped to whatever God that was or was not there that he was just paranoid, and that everything was going to be fine.

He was jolted out of the fear clutching his chest by the sound of someone speaking to Gozaburo.

"Sir, he's calculated that the chances of this working completely are 87.3 percent."

Gozaburo shot a deadly look at the technician. "And if this falls into the 13.7 chance of this failing?"

"He stated the system should force Seto back into reality, there are no dangers posed if it fails. But sir, I think there are other scenarios that could happen, ones you won't like. Maybe we should wait-"

"Murata, I trust his calculations more than your opinions. Take Seto and get him set up to start."

The technician sighed and beckoned for Seto to follow. Despite his worries, he followed, knowing he had little choice at this point.

He had no idea who Gozaburo and Murata were talking about, probably just whoever was head of this project. But it sounded like this had some risks.

' _How could this have dangers? It's a simulation, it's not like I'll be in any real danger.'_ None of this made sense.

It only made sense if Gozaburo was lying about what this was.

...Seto hoped that Mokuba was safe.

They reached the pod beside the large computer, and the tech opened it up for Seto. Seto climbed in, and found that there was something that looked like a helmet inside.

"Put that on, it scans your brainwaves and will put you into the simulation once we start," Murata said.

Seto did so with no difficulty, although it was a bit big on him. He silently wished to know what else it might do, and leaned back in the pod so he was lying down.

"Great! We'll start it in a minute, but first-" He leaned down, and dropped his voice to a whisper, "as soon as things start going bad, focus on something you need to come back for. Anything that's extremely important, hold on to that. It'll bring you to the 13% chance of this failing, and you need to hope this fails."

Seto nodded, hoping that Murata was giving him advice that would be useful. He had no idea how said advice was supposed to help, but he figured the tech knew what he was talking about.

Murata stood up fully and flashed a grin at Seto. "Great! Good luck in there, kid," With that, the man shut the cover of the pod and walked away.

Seto waited patiently for something to happen, taking slow deep breaths to ease his fear. Soon enough, he heard a quiet rhythmic humming. He didn't know exactly where it came from; it was as if the humming surrounded him. But for some reason it calmed his mind and made him sleepy.

He shut his eyes and for a second everything went blank. Then, the humming stopped, and Seto felt like he was falling. It was only for a moment, but it made him jerk and open his eyes.

What he opened his eyes to was not the inside of the pod, but a large field devoid of life. There was no helmet on his head or sounds to be heard. Seto scrambled to his feet, then turned in a circle to see if there was anything there.

He was completely alone.

The sky was a deep blue, the grass was a light green, it reached up to his knees and there was an occasional breeze. The sun was high in the sky. The green and blue were unbroken, not a single cloud or flower was visible. He was inside the simulation.

Perhaps he _was_ just being paranoid. There was nothing dangerous. Seto decided he would get to work on exploring the map and took off in a run.

He found that in the simulation he didn't run out of breath. His heart rate stayed consistent, he didn't feel tired. Seto made a note to bring that up if they wanted it to be realistic to human limitations. The grass felt realistic, he could tear it out of the ground and smell it, and probably taste it if he tried. He only stopped for a moment to test the realism of the grass before running off again. He wanted to figure out if he could find an edge of the map or if there was another map. But there was just the field, which he assumed looped back into itself.

After a few minutes of running around, Seto heard the sound of someone running alongside him. He froze, looked around, and saw no one. With a shrug he took off again, only for it to happen a second time. Once again he stopped and spun around to try and figure out what the sound was.

This time, he saw a person. No, he saw a boy with mint green hair. A breeze whistled through the grass and made it dance, yet the wind didn't move a hair on the head of that boy.

"You're that boy in the painting!" Seto couldn't help but blurt out. The boy laughed and grinned at Seto, a grin that reminded him of a cat about to eat a cornered mouse.

"Why, yes I am. Did my dad never bother to tell you about me? Oh, I suppose not. My name is Noah Kaiba," the boy, Noah, said.

"Noah _Kaiba?_ Like, the son of Gozaburo? How are you in a simulation?" Seto asked. The idea of Gozaburo having this boy as a son made enough sense, he figured that out earlier, but not how this was possible.

"Simple. I died and my mind was transferred to this computer. Very complicated stuff, I'm sure you wouldn't understand how it works-"

"The mind is made up of electric signals, and so are computer programs. Your mind was recreated on this computer by copying what is basically the code for your mind and putting it here."

"I see you've read a few books. But let's cut to the chase, I'm taking your body as my own."

Seto was dumbfounded. This seemed impossible. Either this was some programmed event, or he was right about something bad happening. Sure, wrong about what it was, but the dread was there for a reason. This is what Murata had been giving advice on: how to prevent his mind from being overwritten.

"You're not taking my body. You can't just cheat death by killing me!" Seto yelled in disbelief.

"Hah, sure I can! And it's not like you'll _really_ be dead. To everyone else, to your brother, you'll still be walking around and talking and alive. Actually, I've always wanted a little brother. How convenient that you have one!"

Seto was suddenly filled with rage. _No one took his place as Mokuba's older brother._

Seto charged at Noah and aimed a punch at the other boys face. Right before contact, Noah vanished and Seto heard a laugh behind him. He spun around, off balance from the failed attempt, to see Noah wearing that same grin on his face.

"Ah, feisty! I don't like to fight, but if you insist-" Noah cut himself off to launch himself at Seto. He tried to dodge to the left, but Noah latched onto his right arm. Light burst out from where his arm was held and a blinding pain flared up from it, causing Seto to let out an ear piercing scream.

 _Focus on Mokuba focus focus I have to meet him after I can't die-_

Seto felt his very being set on fire. He focused on his need to be there for Mokuba, focused on pushing back at the pain trying to tear him apart. The light became blinding and encompassed both of them. He heard— _felt_ —Noah yell at him to stop resisting.

He refused to give in. He screamed and screamed and focused on returning to Mokuba, Noah refused to let go of him and kept trying to erase Seto, refused even as the system attempted to force them apart in the programmed safety precaution—he even disengaged it.

Instead of separating them and bringing Seto back, it forced both of them into reality.

They felt like they were falling through the ground, and suddenly they were in Seto's body. Neither noticed properly. Seto continued to scream, not out of pain any longer but at the horror of feeling another in his mind, in his body. Noah was equally horrified, and couldn't help but scream as well.

They screamed in horror at each other, through the same mouth, neither able to grasp full control of Seto's body.

"GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT-"

"-STOP RESISTING STOP I CAN'T GET OUT-"

"-GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

This continued as several people, none of whom they seemed to notice, opened the pod and pulled Seto's kicking body out. They did however, notice when Gozaburo yelled at the technicians.

"What did you do to him?!"

"We didn't do anything! Noah shut off the separation program but not the retrieval one, I think it pulled them both out!"

Both Seto and Noah responded to the sound of Gozaburo's voice and managed to look in his direction.

"YOU TRIED TO KILL ME-"

"-Father he won't stop fighting-!"

"LET GO OF ME!"

They had to stop yelling in order to breathe, but found that they could hear the others thoughts. The fight switched from external to internal, Seto trying to push Noah away from control and Noah pushing back. They stopped yelling, but they didn't stop the kicking.

They didn't hear Gozaburo order the medic to sedate them. Not a moment later a needle was jabbed into Seto's neck, and the darkness of drugged sleep overtook them.


	3. Two Children For the Price of One

A/N: In which I don't update for months :D

Consciousness returned slowly. Blurred memories of an empty field and another boy swam in his mind. He could feel another mind; Noah was waking up as well. Noah. Noah, the boy who was the son of Gozaburo, who tried to kill Seto and take his body. They remembered what happened before they blacked out: Noah failed, and they both got pulled out of the computer and into Seto's body. The horror returned, a fear that they would lose control to the other.

There was a thoughtless moment where they both realized they could control Seto's body, and that the other would not release control easily. They lunged for control, desperate and frantic. Seto and Noah pushed at each other. Noah's mind clawed for control while Seto's shoved Noah away from it. They clawed and shoved at each othery, all in an internal fight until Seto won out. He felt himself settle in control of everything, as if he was slightly in front of the invader in his mind. Frustration bubbled up- but not from him, from Noah. Seto was still horrified, yet he could feel the emotions crossing over. His were crossing over to Noah as well, surely.

Seto opened his eyes and relaxed his muscles. He pushed himself up and swept his gaze across the white room. It seemed like he had been moved into a room that was like a doctor's office at a clinic. It had the bed and medical equipment of one, at least. Noah cut through his observations with a furious string of insults, much to Seto's displeasure.

'You bastard! I deserve control, you were supposed to be erased! You're nothing, a lowly orphan only supposed to be a tool for greater people like me!'

Seto scowled. "Greater people like you? You're a parasite using other people to survive! You should have just died when you were supposed to!"

'How dare you speak to me like that!'

"I'm sure I would be a lot nicer if you hadn't tried to kill me and steal my body."

Whatever Noah was going to retort with got interrupted when the medic stepped into the room. The doctor looked up from his clipboard at Seto with a quiet "Hm?", and then took a seat in the chair.

"So we know that the, er, test didn't go as planned. How are you doing now?"

Seto almost wanted to refuse to answer. "That green haired parasite is in my head, what do you think?"

The doctor started jotting something down on his clipboard. Seto felt Noah claw at him again and dragged him out of control. Suddenly, Noah was in front and Seto couldn't do anything.

L"I'm not a parasite!"

The doctor looked up at him. "What?" He paused, "are you both able to control the body?"

"Yes!" They couldn't tell which one actually spoke.

"Who am I speaking to?"

"It's Noah right now. Seto keeps trying to take his body back-" Seto shoved back into control.

"-Of course I am, it's my body!"

Another note was jotted down. "Is the, ah, switching of control causing any physical discomfort?"

"No, but it's disorienting when that parasite keeps taking over my body."

The doctor hummed. "Would it be alright if I talked to Noah for a minute?"

Seto didn't even get a chance to protest, as Noah forced himself back to the front at the mention of his name.

"I'm here, what do you need?" Noah asked.

"I want to see how functioning your control over the body is," said the doctor, "let's start with you tapping each finger to your thumb, with both hands."

"Got it." Noah easily touched each finger to his thumb. A grin appeared on his face, he was ecstatic to have a real body- even if it was currently still housing it's original owner. He could feel the air in his- Seto's lungs, the texture of the bed, smell the sharp scent of sterile medical tools. Sure Seto was attempting to take back control of his body, but Noah had a strong grasp on the control.

The doctor had him go over several more tests, each showing that Noah had perfect control unless the control of the body started slipping to Seto. He could stand up, walk around, jump, and react appropriately to sudden movement. Everything worked completely fine. Relief washed over him, oh how horrible it would have been if he managed to get a body yet could not operate it!

'You're acting like my body belongs to you, parasite.' Seto spoke up in their shared thoughts.

'It should belong to me, you were supposed to fade.'

Another flare of frustration bubbled up from Seto, but Noah didn't let it ruin his joy.

The doctor set his clipboard off to the side and rose from his seat. "Since we finished that check up, I'll go get Mr. Kaiba. He should be happy to know you're, er, mostly okay." He left the room, leaving Noah and Seto to themselves.

Noah was determined to keep control. It would be quite embarrassing if he lost control to Seto before he could talk to his father. Seto's anger bleed into fear, and he shoved at Noah in a desperate attempt to regain control of his own body. For a minute they froze, neither able to control. Noah slowly pushed Seto away from control again, until he could move the body's limbs. He paced around the room, and found that it was easier to keep control if he was moving around.

Seto made note of that for later.

Only a few moments later, Gozaburo entered the room, followed by the doctor. Noah stopped his pacing and turned to grin at his father, then raced over to wrap his small arms around the man.

"Father! I have a body, it worked! Mostly worked, Seto didn't get erased."

Gozaburo returned the embrace, "I was told. That problem will be fixed soon, once a new program is written to remove him."

"I hope it's not too long," Noah said, "he's annoying and keeps calling me a parasite." He glanced up, happy to see that his father looked relieved that Noah was alive again.

Seto was filled with fear at the very idea, that Gozaburo and Noah were still going to try and kill him again. He grasped at control again, shoving Noah into the back of their mind and pushed himself away from the man. "You- you're going to try and kill me again!" He took a few steps back, "You're trying to kill me and replace me with your demon of a kid!"

Anger flashed on Gozaburo's face, and Seto immediately regretted his words. "You will not speak like that about Noah! Your only purpose is to serve as his body, and you will not disrespect him. Now return control back to him."

"No!" Seto felt the all too familiar pang of betrayal. It was stronger than Noah's attempt to claw back into control, and Noah paused at the intensity. Yet again Seto had been betrayed, only to kept around until his use was up. Clearly in this situation he was considered more useful dead.

He refused to die and leave Mokuba with that parasite and this wicked man.

"No," Seto repeated, "I'm not giving up my body to some brat! This is my body!"

Noah clawed for control, tried to claw Seto back into that space inside his head where he couldn't feel his body. Seto held on to his control, but Noah's attempts for control drove him to his knees. Once again, neither could control Seto's body. In a moments notice the medic was at their side.

"Father, his fear is overwhelming-" Noah was cut off with a quick shake of the head by Seto.

"-Stop trying to control my body-!"

"-No, it belongs to me now!"

"NO!"

For a minute they fell silent. Their body shook with heavy breaths; they continued the struggle for control inside their shared mind.

'How could you think this is okay?' Seto thought, knowing Noah would hear.

'It's not like you'll ever do anything in your life. I am superior to you in every way, My intelligence surpasses all others!' Noah boasted, 'It doesn't concern me if I have to get rid of a nuisance like you to get myself a body again.'

Seto shook with fury at the words of the parasite. His hands curled into fists, and he wished there was a way he could harm Noah. But they were in the same body, he could do nothing.

Suddenly, Gozaburo was kneeling in front of them, hands on Seto's shoulders.

"Noah. Push past Seto and take control."

That was all the encouragement needed for the boy. Noah grasped control and relaxed his hands. "Father, I would like to go home." His real home, not the virtual recreation of it.

"Soon. I have some business here to do first. You will wait here until I'm finished."

Noah sighed, "Fine. I'll work on keeping control while I wait." Then, a passing thought from Seto caught his attention. "What are we doing with Mokuba?"

"That will be up to you. He is simply an extra, I couldn't care less if he stayed or left," Gozaburo answered.

'Don't you dare let him do anything to my brother!' Seto shouted at Noah. He couldn't stand the idea of something happening to Mokuba, because this brat decided he didn't want him.

'Shut up, I'm talking. Clearly you weren't listening earlier.'

Out loud, Noah answered Gozaburo, "I've always wanted a little brother. Might as well keep him around!" He wouldn't even have to worry about whether or not the child would like him, Mokuba would be under the impression he was Seto.

"Very well." Gozaburo stood up, Noah following. "Arrangements will be made for his permanent residence."

Noah grinned, "Wonderful! Thank you for doing all this, father!"

"You say that as if I would not have. Now, I will be off. Find a way to compromise with Seto long enough to return home with minimal issues."

"Of course!" Noah nodded. Gozaburo turned and walked out the door, hands in pockets. The medic remained in the room, likely to supervise and watch him.

Noah climbed up on the bed they had woken up on, and leaned against the wall. He didn't bother to talk to the medic; there were more important things to deal with. The entire time he had felt the attempts at control from Seto, and finally decided to lessen his hold over the body. They drifted into mutual control, focus turning to the mental conversation they would have.

They argued about who would have control, who would talk to Mokuba, and threw insults at each other. Seto insisted that he should not be replaced, that was his murder! Noah argued that he would make much better use of the body, Seto had no purpose.

They eventually reached a temporary agreement: they were stuck together for now. They would work together until they get back to the mansion. Seto would deal with Mokuba, Noah would interact with his father. Everything else would have to be dealt with later.

They stared out the car window, Noah enjoying being in reality and feeling wind on his face, Seto keeping him from taking complete control. Seto had told Mokuba, who sat beside him, that during the "test" he played tag in a field with a dragon, then hide and seek. Mokuba expected to hear about games, and Seto gave him a story of games.

Mokuba rambled aimlessly about what he did, Seto paying just enough attention to respond when needed. Noah was distracted by physical sensation, and it was distracting Seto as well. They drifted in their own thoughts, trying to ignore the thoughts and feelings from the other. Each noticed how similar their thought process was; they both thought in a way similar to a computer. They also noticed that they could access information the other knew. Memories did not come up, but instead facts and concepts.

Not only were Seto and Noah sharing a body, they were sharing information.

Seto was fascinated by all the concepts he now understood and could ponder, supplied by the parasite called Noah. For the last stretch of the ride, he dived into the information and played with the new ideas. It was a wonderful distraction, and he could think up so many things to create-!

"Setooooo, stop ignoring me!" said a very irritated Mokuba. "Are we home yet?"

Seto jerked out of his thoughts and took full control of his body from Noah, who was surprised at the sudden interruption. "Oh, sorry Mokuba. I got distracted." He glanced out the windows, "Almost, I think."

'About two minutes before we pull up to the gate.'

"Two minutes, probably," Seto added. For once since he woke up, Noah was being helpful.

Mokuba nodded with a smile, "Okay! Our house is so big, there's like a million rooms!" He then launched into a very detailed rant of his opinions of the mansion with as much enthusiasm as a child could possibly have. Noah was pleased with how happy Mokuba was about his new home; Mokuba was certainly more excited than Seto was.

'Stop thinking like you're Mokuba's brother. You're not, I am,' Seto snapped at Noah from inside their mind, 'you're just a parasite.'

Noah scoffed, 'I'm his brother now too, whether you like it or not! Either way, it's this or he gets dropped back off at your cruddy orphanage.'

That shut Seto up pretty fast. He wouldn't let Noah get his little brother left alone at that horrid place.

Not a few moments later, the car pulled into the driveway of the Kaiba home. Noah could hardly contain himself at the excitement of being in his real home, in fact he forced himself into control and pretty much flung himself out of the car. Seto tried to pull control back to himself and stop Noah from sprinting out of the car, tried to force his body to slow down-

"Ack!" They landed on the ground with a loud thud. A spike of pain shot out from Seto's elbow, and Noah quickly retreated from the sensation.

'Ow! Ugh, what's up with physical bodies and pain? I hate it. At least the virtual world didn't have pain,' Noah said.

'Oh come on, it's not even that bad!'

Seto picked himself off the ground, rubbing the sore spot. That was embarrassing, no thanks to the parasite. A second later Mokuba enveloped him in a worried hug, apparently concerned about the fall.

"Are you okay?"

"Of course, I just tripped. Don't worry, Mokuba."

Gozaburo walked past the brothers, not even sparing a glance. "Control yourself, son. We don't want any mishaps because of your inability to do so."

Seto and Noah got the message loud and clear. Don't mess up, don't injure themselves because they were fighting for control, Noah shouldn't let Seto screw up his control like that.

Speaking of which, Noah dragged himself into the front of control.

"Of course, father. I'll be more careful."

* * *

A/N: I will attempt to actually update regularly! About every two weeks or so.

Feel free to check out my tumblr Bakufun1 if you want to talk to me about the story or whatever! Link is in my profile.


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